


Reign Interlude

by vox_ex



Series: Supergirl Redux [2]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Character Study, Danvers Sisters, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Everyone needs a hug again, Protective Alex Danvers, Protective Maggie Sawyer, The family we choose
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-05
Updated: 2017-12-29
Packaged: 2019-02-11 00:54:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12923841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vox_ex/pseuds/vox_ex
Summary: An extension of 3x09 that takes place in the time leading up to 3x10. The truth always seems to come at night.





	1. Truth

**Author's Note:**

> I was working on a story for Triggers, but then this happened. Sorry if it feels rushed.
> 
> Disclaimer: As always I have no rights to the source material, or anything else really.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is kind of short, but it will wind up being three parts

The truth always seems to come at night.

Maybe it's the wanting stillness that begs for words to fill it.

Maybe it's the inescapable uncertainty found at its end.

But against the darkened sky, when doubts are felt not seen, we feel the need for truth.

Maggie has done this countless times before.

She has had to tell strangers and friends; husbands and wives, daughters and sons.

Maggie has done this countless times before, but it's never felt so real or so wrong.

She knows that Alex has had these conversations too. That unlike herself she can't always tell the truth, that she can't always give someone what they are owed — what they deserve.

Because that kind of truth is flawed and burdened and incomplete.

She knows that Alex knows this more than anyone, that she stood in her living room and was told by a stranger her father wasn't coming home. That she was told anything but the truth.

And that's why Alex is here with her and not where she wants to be —needs to be.

Because Alex had always known there would be a time she would have to do this, and Maggie knows she had promised herself when she did it would be the truth.

When Lena opens the door, Maggie is immediately reminded that she and Alex aren't the only ones who have been here before.

That by the silent question in her eyes and the hesitation in her breath she knows why they are here.

She remembers Kara telling them about Lena's father, about Lena coming home to a crying brother and a silent mother.

She remembers the cops who dragged her brother bleeding and mad from her house while she watched.

And for all the things she planned to say, her words are lost to the unspoken grief that hangs between them.

It's Lena's quiet broken voice that answers the stillness first.

"is she.. is she alive?"

Maggie nods her head — not trusting the word that could become a lie.

Alex steps forward beside her.

"Lena…."

Maggie watches the younger woman stand just a bit taller, but her eyes betray the confidence of her words.

"I'm coming, I don't care what needs to be done, but I'm coming."

Alex steps forward again and takes Lena's hand in the subtlest of reassurances.

"I know."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to write this for Maggie's perspective because I thought it would bring a kind of emotional objectivity to the other characters as well. I hope you agree.
> 
> Feedback is always appreciated and welcome.


	2. Promises

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alex's POV
> 
> A/N: For this story, everything up until 3x09 is the same as in the show including Maggie and Alex's breakup.

It's been four weeks since Maggie left.

Four weeks of doubt and guilt and of waking up alone.

It's been three weeks since she almost died.

Three weeks since she stood with a gun to her head and a ditch at her back wanting nothing more than home.

And now it's been two hours since she watched Kara fall.

Two hours of bargaining and anger and her sister's blood on her hands.

Her knuckles are white as she grips the sides of the sink and all at once it's all too much.

Four weeks of barely holding on shatters in one second of letting go.

Shards of glass litter the floor and her fist and this time the blood is her own.

She stumbles back from the fractured remains of the mirror and, feeling as broken as her reflection, lets herself sink to the floor.

She should have stopped her.

She had looked into her sister's eyes and saw Kara's anger at herself, saw her anger at worlds old and new, saw that she didn't know what she was fighting.

She could have stopped her.

But instead, she sent her into a fight she couldn't win.

_"Listen to me. I know you have been struggling the past few months, and I have been trying to get you to embrace your humanity, but that's not who you have to be right now. Right now you need to forget about the city, and your friends, and me. You can't be distracted, you can't be worried about us, and you can't try to save her Kara. You can't save everyone; sometimes they just have to be stopped." ___

____

She doesn't hear the door open, doesn't register she is no longer alone until the sound of the water still running from the abandoned sink suddenly stops.

She waits for them to say something, expects it will be something to try and reassure her, expects it will be a lie.

What she doesn't expect is Maggie.

And suddenly there is no need for words and no room for lies.

There is too much between them to require these things, and it is enough that she is here.

Maggie moves to sit beside her and gently reaches out for her hand tracing the bruised and bleeding knuckles.

It is a simple gesture void of pity or promise, and it is everything at that moment that she needs.

It will always be Maggie she needs.

And there will be time to prove that.

There will be time to find their way back.

But for now, it is enough that she came.

She leans her head onto Maggie's shoulder, and they sit side by side until she feels like she can breathe again.

"There is something I have to do, something I promised Kara if anything ever happened or if there was ever a chance…"

Her eyes remain fixed on the floor, and her voice trails off unwilling but Maggie's hand tightens reassuring her.

"She made me promise that if it came to it, I wouldn't lie, that I would let the things that needed to be said be said. She couldn't imagine causing someone the pain of not knowing, of not saying goodbye."

She finally turns to look at Maggie.

"She isn't waking up…And I…I won't stop, I will do everything I can to hold onto to her, but in case I can't, I need to keep that promise."

She sees the tears in Maggie's eyes and knows that somewhere along the way Maggie has become Kara's family too, and there will be things of her own that need to be said.

"But I don't think I can do it alone."

Maggie reaches forward and wipes tears from her face that she hadn't even realized were there.

"You don't have to."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please let me know what you think, it's always appreciated.
> 
> I don't want to rush this, but at the same time, I can't stop wanting to write it. So please excuse me if it feels hurried.


	3. Knowing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lena's POV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thought Lena's story would have more impact if she already knew Kara was Supergirl, so it's still a reveal but in a different kind of way than if she had found out after the fact. I also think that after everything that happened on Earth-X Kara would maybe feel like she needed to be more open with her heart again.

Lena knows what it is to watch Supergirl fall.

She knows what it is to watch her bleed.

But until tonight she hadn't known what it would mean to watch Kara fall…to bleed…to not get up.

Those fears were all too new, too raw.

She hasn't moved since James brought her home, her clothes still smelling of smoke and littered with dust, refusing for even a moment to put down her phone or lose sight of the door.

She tries to think of every moment that passes as another moment Kara is still alive, that every second without evidence to the contrary is another reason not to give up.

But as seconds turn into minutes and minutes become hours she starts to think that she was wrong.

That hearing nothing is worse.

She tries to think of anything else, anything that will calm the desperate drum of her heart. But all she can think of is the last time Kara stood outside her door almost three weeks ago.

\---- ---- ---- ----

_The knock had been so gentle that if Lena hadn't already been awake, she is sure she would have missed it._

_She didn't really know what to expect when she made her way to the door, and maybe she should have been more concerned by the early morning intrusion, but when a second knock was accompanied by the uncharacteristic tentativeness of Kara's voice, she found herself opening it without hesitation._

_"Kara what are you doing here. Are you okay."_

_But Kara didn't answer, and her eyes remained downcast as the rain from her clothes terminated in a small puddle on the floor and Lena suddenly wondered how long she had been standing there._

_"please come inside; you must be freezing."_

_Lena reached out to take her hand from where it was clenched at her side._

_"Kara whatever it is, it'll be okay."_

_Without a word, Kara took Lena's hand then and brought it up to rest on her own chest just above her heart._

_Lena didn't know what was happening, but there was something telling her not to stop it, that whatever this was it was important._

_With her hand still on Kara's chest, she watched as the other woman tried unsuccessfully to unbutton the top of her shirt._

_Lena covered Kara's shaking hands with her own and together they finished the task she had seemed so intent on._

_Kara's eyes remained steadily on the floor between them never daring a glance at Lena but even without words it soon became clear what she was trying to say._

_Lena let go of Kara's hands, and they almost immediately resumed their place at her side as if retreating._

_She moved her fingers along the surface of the newly exposed fabric tracing the outline of the symbol she knew so well._

_Her hand stilled again over Kara's heart, memorizing the feel of its steady rhythm._

_She watched Kara's hands leave her side once more, her fingers hesitating on the frame of her glasses before removing them._

_Finally, for the first time that night Lena found herself looking into the uncertain depths of Kara's eyes._

_She hadn't needed to see Kara's face to know the guilt and doubt she would find there, but now that she was confronted with it, she wanted nothing more than to make it go away._

_With her other hand, she let her thumb gently trace the scar above Kara's eye._

_It was something so small, so utterly unremarkable that before tonight she never would have thought of it as anything special. But now it was a reminder that the hero before her hadn't always worn that symbol on her chest, that even if Supergirl were invulnerable, Kara wasn't._

_She doesn't know how long they stood there, neither willing to move, but soon it became clear that Kara was waiting for her. That whatever came next had to come from her because Kara had already given everything of herself that she could._

_Lena thought of all the questions in her mind, of all the coincidences and circumstances adding up to the truth no in front her._

_She thought of how vulnerable Kara seemed and of all the things that could have brought her here at 2 am in the pouring rain._

_She thought of the difference between strength and imperviousness._

_She thought of all these things, but there was only one question she asked._

_"why now?"_

_Kara's eyes drifted back to the floor as if afraid her answer couldn't possibly be good_

_enough…but it was_

_"I wanted to use my heart."_

-xx-

Lena still doesn't know all of what led up to that moment.

She knows that something happened to scare Kara while she was gone.

She knows that she almost didn't make it back.

But she doesn't know the depths of the scars it left her with.

And she doesn't know if she ever will.

Lena pales at the memory and wants nothing more than to be wherever Kara is now.

But Kara had wanted to protect her from everything that knowing meant and she had wanted something just between them for just a little longer.

So no one knew that she knew.

No one knew she was waiting.

But she was, and just as it felt like the waiting might never end, it did.

There is a moment between the sound of the knock on her door and the hesitation in her steps when she thinks that for all the time spent waiting she is still not ready for this.

And when she finally opens the door, she realizes she never will be, and so she asks the only question she can manage.

"Is she alive?"

It's Maggie that nods her head, but it's Alex who steps forward.

"Lena…."

And all the sudden she's worried. Worried that Alex won't let her come, worried that just because Kara is alive, that doesn't mean she's okay and so she starts to think of anything to say, anything that won't make her have to stay in this fucking apartment any longer.

"I'm coming, I don't care what needs to be done, but I'm coming"

She's cut off when Alex steps forward again, this time to take her hand, and it is the gesture more than the words that calms her.

"I know."

And when she looks into Alex's eyes she knows that she does.

"But there are things I have to tell you first. Things I promised."

Lena realizes then that long before Kara ever told her who she was, she trusted her enough to know.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here it is. Thanks to everyone who stuck with me for this. I know it's a little uneven in places and rushed. 
> 
> I left it a little open-ended on purpose just in case. 
> 
> I am going to continue to try and explore these episodes in a different way so knowing what is working so far important to me and I am always up for the kudos and comments.


	4. Seeing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So three parts has turned into four and I hope it's for the better. I wasn't sure how to approach this at first , but I finally got some time from work to have a go at it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a request to add this scene and I hope it can meet expectations. 
> 
> I also tried to fix some of the grammar and things from other chapters, though admittedly this will never be my strong suit as I have a thing for run-on sentences. (see this author note as case in point)

Lena’s head rests against the window; her eyes fixed on the passing lights as they bend and warp the city’s landscape. She thinks how time, like light, can refract and distort, how the seconds feel faster as the streets blur. She thinks it looks like waiting feels — everything interrupted and disordered, everything sped up or slowed down. 

Alex’s words from only moments ago blend themselves into the fractured night. 

_“She’d wanted to tell you for so long. Practiced it to get the words just right. But she was so scared of losing you, of hurting you, that she never could. Then when we came back it was different, she was different, and none of those reasons scared her more than you losing her without knowing. “ ___

____

____

Lena had already known from Kara’s own confessions that she almost lost her sister, that they both almost didn’t make it back. But she didn’t know that Alex was left to die or that Kara was strapped to a table like some medical experiment and taunted her with her own vulnerability. She didn’t know that they had made her feel worthless and broken, that they told her she didn’t deserve her own heart, that it wouldn’t matter if they took it. 

She closes her eyes and remembers Maggie’s tears at Alex’s own revelations. 

She remembers the feeling of her hand on Kara’s chest and the water pooled at her feet. 

She wonders how cruel the world must be to ask this of her now, to have to think of letting go of something she only just found. 

When they finally stop, the city streets have been replaced by concrete walls and time resumes its wonted pace. 

The cold air stings against her skin as she steps out of the car and makes visible against the glow of fluorescent lights the shuddering breaths she takes to steady herself. 

Maggie’s hand rests briefly on her shoulder, encouraging her to follow as Alex walks toward a door at the far end of the garage. 

The longer they walk, the quieter it gets, and the heavier the air begins to feel. 

At every door, and with every key and code and lock, her steps falter with the fear she’ll be left behind. 

But she never is. 

And so her steps resume their proposed pace, and she follows almost blindly, focused only on the singular task of moving forward, of seeing Kara.

When Alex finally pauses Lena finds herself in front of one last door. The Agent’s hand stills on the panel, but she doesn’t open it. She turns around instead, clearing her throat and steadying her gaze. Lena can’t be sure, but she thinks this is the first time any of them have spoken since leaving her apartment. 

“She. We don’t. We don’t know at what rate her body is going to be able to heal itself. She didn’t solar flare, at least not during the fight. We still aren’t sure what happened. All we know is that right now her cells are depleted, and she isn’t responding well to the solar lights.”

Alex pauses, lets them understand the implications of what she’s said. 

“I have to help get the stasis unit ready. We think, maybe, her body will respond better when it’s under less stress. I need…I need you both to be here with Kara for me. She shouldn’t…I don’t want her to feel alone.”

Lena nods. Alex steps forward pulling Maggie and her into her arms and looking them both in the eye one last time. 

Her eyes say everything her words didn’t. 

She’s giving them both the chance to be with Kara, to do the thing her sister asked of her. 

Lena can’t bring herself to look up right away, and so the first thing she notices as the door opens is that everything is a little louder again. That the sterile air is punctuated by the whirr of machines and the echo of monitors. She thought it would be comforting, the reassurance of Kara’s heartbeat in her ears, but it’s sounds so wrong now, so different from the steady rhythm she remembers underneath her fingertips. 

Stepping further into the room she realizes that underneath the pale blue of the hospital gown, Kara is still laying on the tattered remains of her suit. 

It’s a cruel juxtaposition and a haunting reminder. 

Her eyes shift to what she can see of the charred emblem. 

She lets fingers her brush the fabric of Kara’s cape and pauses when they come away stained by ash and blood. 

Her legs shake, and hands hesitate. 

She prays to gods she doesn’t believe in and gods she doesn’t know. 

She holds her breath and bites back tears. 

“I don’t want to hurt her.”

And the words mean so much more than they say but still Maggie answers back, “You won’t.”

And finally, she reaches out, longing for Kara’s warmth, for her touch. 

\---- ---- ---- ----

Maggie can’t help but want to follow Alex, but she knows that she needs to be here, that she needs to be with Kara while Alex can’t and that Lena doesn’t deserve to be alone now. 

She watches Lena’s eyes hesitate to leave the floor as she draws a shaking hand up to tuck her hair behind her ear. It’s a sight so achingly familiar that it reminds her all at once of Kara, of the hero’s own anxious gestures and the vulnerability they are meant to hide. She can’t help but think then how similar they are, Lena and Kara. How easy it is to forget how young they are, how much they’ve lost. Maggie knows this is a side of Lena only a few people have ever known. That maybe Kara is the only one left who does. 

She moves forward across from where Lena is standing, and her heart breaks at the way the younger woman’s hand hesitates over Kara’s own. 

Neither one of them has even seen her so broken. 

Lena’s voice mirrors her hesitation when she speaks “I don’t want to hurt her.”

Maggie moves closer to her, “You won’t.” And she wishes she could smile then as Lena’s hand finally rests on Kara’s, but all she sees is the blood marring Kara’s skin. 

Too many times she has woken up to Alex’s nightmares of moments like this. Too many times she’s been there after close calls and near misses. But she realizes now that she’s only ever been there after. That despite the danger of their jobs and the reality of Kara’s identity, this is the first time she’s been in this room, it’s the first time she’s seen Kara as anything but unbreakable. 

Maggie’s only ever felt this helpless one other time in her life. 

Her hands open and close at her side demanding a task. Something. Anything. 

She looks again at the matted blood in Kara’s hair, at the torn skin of her knuckles and she moves quietly toward the sink. 

Filling a small basin with warm water, Maggie places it on the table next to Kara’s bed along with several clean towels. 

She slowly lets some of the warm water drip lightly onto the back of Kara’s other hand, and as gently as she can, she starts to clean away the blood and soot. 

When the towel in her hands is turned pink by her efforts, she turns back to the basin, wringing the tainted water through her hands. Turning around again she feels a light pressure on her wrist, and she looks up to see Lena’s outstretched hand and fragile smile. 

Maggie hands Lena another towel, and watches as the younger woman’s delicate fingers trace the outline of Kara’s face revealing the rows of stitches and bruised skin underneath. 

By the time they are done, it seems like such a small thing to have done, but at that moment, it was enough. 

She looks again at Kara’s hands. Hands that have fought and comforted now held tight in desperate need. 

Her mind wanders to what ifs. To losing and letting go. To coming home and holding on. To Kara and Alex and Lena. To J’onn and James and Winn. 

She wonders how they have all managed to find each other in the face of so much. 

Lena is across from her still, seated next to Kara’s head. The same hands that only moments ago were tainted with blood now smoothing away the blonde’s hair from her face. 

Lena leans in closer and tears fall freely as whispers of prayer or promise or both leave her lips. 

As she finishes, the door behind them opens once more, and Maggie waits for the familiar cadence of Alex’s footsteps. 

Hesitating only briefly, she moves closer to Kara. 

Her own whispered words fill the air. 

“This isn’t all you get Kara. There’s so much more, I promise. We’re right here. All of us.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should say that I didn't write what Lena would have said because I thought it might be a cool idea for each reader to be able to have it be something different. But I'm always open to feedback and am not above editing a story after the fact. 
> 
> Kudos and comments welcome. They are very much appreciated and helpful.


End file.
